ATHABASCA – An Athabasca man who has been in jail since October on other charges will get no enhanced credit for the time he has been serving, as he was sentenced to 100 days in jail on a break and enter with intent to commit mischief charge from 2019.
Marcel M.V. Gambler represented himself in orange coveralls from the prisoner’s box in Athabasca Provincial Court March 7, but his defence that no one actually saw him inside the old Home Hardware building on Sept. 27, 2019, didn’t exactly hold up for Judge Jeffrey Champion.
Crown prosecutor Patricia Hankinson laid out the chain of events that happened that day when Home Hardware owner Carol Alberts saw a man matching Gambler’s description with “one foot in, and one foot out” of the boiler room at the back of the building as she did a drive-by of her property, which was mostly being used as storage, on her lunch break that day.
On the stand, Alberts testified she yelled at the man to ask what he was doing, to which he responded that he was “getting high” and to mind her own business. She added the door would have been secured with a deadbolt and other locking mechanisms, as there were still important items inside, and property that could have been damaged.
“I said it is my business because it is my building,” she recalled responding to him, and took two pictures of the man, which were submitted as evidence.
She told court she then called the RCMP, and kept her eye on him as he proceeded south on 50th St. In downtown Athabasca, where he was soon arrested and briefly taken into custody.
On cross-examination, Gambler asked only if any break-in tools had been found on the scene, to which Alberts said there had not.
Athabasca RCMP Const. Josh Vincent took the call that day, and testified from his new detachment over Webex, verifying Alberts’ version of events. He noted he had spoken to Gambler briefly before arresting him and was told he was in the boiler room trying to get out of the wind.
In his own defence Gambler told the judge there was no evidence he was ever inside the building as the pictures only showed him outside.
“I was standing out back, I never said I entered the building. That’s them saying that,” he said, adding he never gave a statement to the officer and that no statement was mentioned in the disclosure he received, therefore the evidence presented was nothing but hearsay.
Hankinson asked for 120-150 days in jail on the single count, considering Gambler’s related record.
Judge Champion noted Gambler did not give any evidence of his own and that he was going on the evidence that was presented before announcing the guilty verdict.
“I got time in, so I’m not worried,” said Gambler, who has been incarcerated at Edmonton Remand Centre since October when he was jailed for breaking conditions related to his release on an arson charge in August. In May, Gambler will defend himself on that charge.
Hankinson pointed out he was currently in jail on other matters and had served no time in relation to the charge being spoken to that day, so would not receive an enhanced credit toward the 100-day sentence.
